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The parts Are easily distinguishable From The many others scattered around Carry Andrew's engine room at his hypercycle shop. A crankshaft with three evenly spaced throws sits on one bench, alone among cranks with four throws in a single plane. Next to that a cylinder head with three intake ports looks out of place. Under a cart lies a long balance shaft. The valve gear is grouped in sets of 12, and on a separate bench are three pistons, three connecting rods and three sets of rod bearings.
This is the engine of our Triumph 675 test bike, disassembled in anticipation of being entered in an ama Formula Xtreme race later this year. The entire selection of kit parts supplied by Triumph sits ready for installation: Cams, valves, a lightweight generator and other goodies-along with Andrew's magic-will boost power significantly. We'll have more about the project and its proceedings in future issues, but my visit to hypercycle and a look inside the Triumph's engine show some interesting differences from-and similarities to-the Japanese middleweights.
Overall the 675's architecture is clearly much the same as the typical Japanese in-line engine-but with one cylinder missing. The cam chain is on one end of the cylinder bank, the generator on the other, two cams up top and four valves in each cylinder directly actuated with shims under buckets. Behind is a stacked transmission, the input shaft sliding into the upper case half. And the balancer shaft sits in front of the crank, just as it does on many balancer-equipped Japanese multis. All very familiar.
I ask Andrew what the major difference is between the Triumph's engine and a typical Japanese engine, and he points to the materials and metallurgy. The 675's aluminum castings are thicker, made from what looks to be a slightly weaker material than the parts he sees on a day-to-day basis. The camshaft material appears rougher and is a darker color than the Kawasaki cam sitting nearby, an indication of different additives that probably Add up to weaker material as well. The evidence is in the holes drilled through each: The Kawasaki's cams have proportionally larger holes, leaving a lesser amount of a stronger material. The Triumph's parts are correspondingly heavier.
It makes sense based on the quantity of motorcycles each manufacturer produces. The big Four can buy raw materials in much greater bulk than Triumph can, allowing the use of better material with the increased cost spread over thousands of units. This is just one example of the several disadvantages the british manufacturer faces in trying to compete with the Japanese. The Japanese.
If many individual pieces are a bit heavier than their Japanese counterparts, then how did our 675 end up being lighter than almost all the four-cylinder 600s? The key is in the design of the engine-and no doubt the whole bike-resulting in one advantage Triumph does have over the big companies. Being a smaller company with fewer models updated less frequently (the 675 is entering its third year of production almost unchanged) allows Triumph to devote more time and attention to each bike's design, whereas a huge corporation churning out a dozen new models every year must spread out its resources accordingly.
Additionally, individual parts play a factor. A big company can use economies of scale to its advantage in many cases, but it can also be a disadvantage when it comes to sharing parts with those many other models. For example, the large manufacturer may use the same widget on four or five different models as it has for years on those and other models. If the widget is overbuilt and heavy for the current 600 but still does the job, chances are it will still be used. Cutting costs is important in the price-conscious middleweight class, and the company is not likely to design and manufacture a dedicated widget for one model's two-year production run. Triumph, on the other hand, has to design and build almost every part specifically for the 675, and those parts can be optimized for the application. End result? A lighter, better bike.
It was a very eye-opening chat with Andrew and interesting to see how Triumph is using the strength of its relatively small size to compete with the big Four. Our 675 FX project is turning out to be quite interesting in other aspects as well. While Andrew concentrates on the engine i've been rounding up the various bits for the chassis, and eric nugent, who helped with our last FX project, has been putting it all together. The Triumph is new to all of us, and it's sure to be an adventure.
Ducati Desmosedici GP7
Casey's Cannonball
Let's face it: We all like it when the little guy wins. When the underdog upsets the odds. When ingenuity, passion and determination all pay off-including the foresight to gamble on building a bike like the Ducati Desmosedici GP7.
The chance to ride Casey Stoner's bike at the annual promofest press test after the Valencia GP promised to give at least the hint of an answer as to how the modern-day David triumphed over Goliath. Only one thing was wrong-well, two, actually. A crowd of people slated to ride the Ducati meant each person was limited to only four laps on the GP7. And to top it all off? "We know the track conditions aren't so good first thing in the morning after the overnight cold, so we need an experienced pair of hands to start the test," said Ducati PR exec Federica de Zottis. "You're up first!"
Well, of course I did as I was asked, rather than spit the dummy-wouldn't you? But this glimpse of the promised land was doubly frustrating because the Ducati is so different from all the other bikes. For a start it has quite different architecture from its Japanese rivals, being longer, lower and more voluptuous to look at. The seat is much lower than on the others, but it has a very distinctive riding position with extremely high footrests plus a wide and flat angle to the clip-on handlebars, where I'd expected steeply dropped clip-ons befitting someone from the 125/250GP classes like Stoner. "Don't forget, I'm a dirt-track graduate. That's where I learned how to race back home in Oz as a kid," Stoner explained about his bar angle.
After climbing aboard and settling into the hot seat I found the ergos to be surprisingly spacious, except for those high footpegs. They made the race-pattern gearbox quite hard to backshift on because of the raised lever that's also lifted to stop it from grounding at full lean. (According to telemetry graphs Stoner frequently leans over as far as 60 degrees from vertical.) Firing up the GP7 on the rollers produced a glorious sound from the twin 2-into-1 exhausts. The "screamer"-firing-order engine used this year has allowed Ducati to revert to these, in contrast to the four separate megaphones required by the old "Twin Pulse" 990. The lumpy, offbeat, 3000-rpm idle speed is deliberately set high to help offset engine braking when you close the ride-by-wire throttle entering a turn.
The fact that you can't easily read the tachometer isn't important, because the Ducati's broad spread of power makes it almost unnecessary. I expected the GP7's delivery to be quite peaky and the powerband relatively narrow, in pursuit of that all-conquering performance-but if anything it was quite the opposite. Though it doesn't pull quite as strongly from down low as the Suzuki and Kawasaki, the Ducati accelerates very hard from around 11,000 rpm onwards. There's a meaty spread of midrange power as it builds furiously toward the 19,000-rpm rev limiter dialed in for this press test (20,000-plus rpm in race guise has been rumored). A row of blue lights starts flashing at 18,500 rpm to tell you now might be a good time to upshift, as the Ducati accelerates like a missile while the Marelli anti-wheelie program stops the front wheel from lifting more than a few inches off the ground.
What about the traction control? Well, that only works when you're riding the bike the way it should be ridden. In just four early morning laps I'll admit that in right-handers I wasn't prepared to give it the berries because of concern about tread temps on that side of the tire. Valencia's numerous left-handers were another matter, and there I could revel in the Desmosedici 800's fantastic drive as the Marvel 4 ECU's electronics played a silent part in hooking up the rear tire. Just as when I rode Troy Bayliss' factory V-twin Superbike back in the summer of 2007, there's no sense that ignition advance is being held back or fueling leaned off, or that some unseen hand is winding back the GP7's throttle without your knowing it. There's no machine-gun stutter like Ducati's Superbikes once made, either-just a sense of unseen control that brings confidence in its wake.
But perhaps the biggest surprise in riding the Ducati GP7 is how smooth the response is when you get back on the gas again to drive out of a turn after using the monster power of the Brembo carbon brakes and the effective ramp-style slipper clutch to run deep into the turns. The electronics do their bit in softening the initial response-but only that. While there's none of the fierce power delivery from a closed throttle that the exhaust's raw-edged roar would lead you to expect, that doesn't mean that acceleration is anything less than awesome when you get the GP7 straightened up and fired out of the exit of the turn. Instead, once again the Ducati is simply well controlled. Ducati Corse engineers have cleverly mapped all the electronics to make the GP7 incredibly user-friendly for such a powerful motorcycle. There are myriad adjustments possible, but with just four laps I wasn't about to start playing around with the range of different settings for traction control and engine maps accessible by punching buttons in the busy-looking cockpit.
It's hard to ignore the Desmosedici motor, but as Stoner repeatedly proved it's the overall package that delivers the goods. The Ducati seemed to change direction better than all but the Honda, especially in the two Valencia chicanes where it flicked from side to side much more eagerly than its 990cc GP6 predecessor. And where that bike pushed the front wheel rounding the long left up over the hill leading into the last turn, the 800cc GP7 held a tight line much better. It needs to be kept hard on the gas to do this, but there's no doubt this is a better-steering bike than its predecessor.
I thought before I rode it that the Desmosedici GP7 would be all motor, or that maybe, as a certain Italian rider insists, the Ducati only won the world title because of Bridgestone's superiority or the GP7's high degree of electronic control that makes the pilot less important, F1-style. But it's easy to see it was all that plus Stoner's skill in riding the GP7 exactly as it needed to be ridden, as well as his newfound consistency in finishing every race, thanks mainly to a front tire he could trust. The Ducati GP7 is a bike that is beyond criticism from anyone except its regular rider. Only on tight, twisty tracks like Sachsenring and Valencia was it anything other than totally dominant; and judging by Stoner's times in Valencia testing the day after my ride, the GP8 that's been on track since March may very well have addressed that. Will 2008 be the start of a Ducati dynasty in MotoGP under the 800cc formula, like the Italian marque enjoyed in World Superbike for so long?
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After that the differences become harder to spot. Black multispoke wheels give the bike a meaner look, while a black anodized 43mm inverted Showa fork complements the dark theme. Out back lies a new subframe, which gives the rear of the bike a slightly different profile and the pillion more leg room.
That about covers the changes. At its heart lies the same 1050cc, DOHC, inline-triple we've all come to know and love for its wonderful sound and aggressive character. According to Triumph it pumps out 131 horsepower and 77 ft-lb of torque.
Seeing as how the Speed Triple is the company's favorite son, it's easy to understand why Triumph would invite journalists to ride the "significantly redesigned" 2008 version. And frankly we're not ones to say no to free meals and riding motorcycles. Gatlinburg, Tennessee, would be the site of the launch, and the ride route would take us through some of the best roads Tennessee and North Carolina have to offer-including the fabled Tail of the Dragon.
Sitting on the Speed Triple, the upright seating position and the naked front end scream out "wheelie!" as all kinds of devious thoughts run through your mind. The bike just evokes that kind of emotion. Surely Triumph banks off of that, as what jumps out about the Speed Triple is obviously the inline-triple engine. The melodic intake growl and exhaust note just beg the rider to open the throttle more and more. Except for some minor lag during on/off throttle, power delivery is smooth and responsive.
Triumph put great emphasis on updating the braking system, and those efforts paid off. The Dragon has a few tight bends that require extensive scrubbing of speed, and the Nissin/Brembo combination worked flawlessly. Initial bite wasn't excessive and stopping power was superb. Modulation at the lever was great as well, no doubt aided by the steel-braided brake lines.
In Ama Pro Racing, World Superbike And MotoGP there's been a shift in riding styles. From the days of '80s and '90s heroes like Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan who were forced to wrestle powerful, unruly beasts to their will, a younger generation of riders typified by Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner took over, rising from the high-corner speed ranks of 125cc and 250cc Grand Prix machinery to the more refined, better-behaved MotoGP bikes of today with their complex engine-management software and traction control. Actually Rossi's career dates from the final days of fire-breathing 500cc two-strokes (he won the last 500CC World Championship in 2001, then piled up consecutive MotoGP championships from 2002 to 2005), which likely contributes to making him the most versatile and perhaps most talented roadracer of all time.
Focusing on riding styles, in particular body position while hanging off during cornering, we see the evolution from the more upright chest-over-the-tank style of the past couple of decades to the radically to-the-inside and almost under-the-bike shenanigans of the youngsters. The old school still has some fight left, as exemplified by former World Superbike champions Troy Bayliss (a dominant force in the series and currently leading WSBK points) and Neil Hodgson, one of our interview subjects here, who makes his return to AMA Superbike competition to take care of some unfinished business. Representing the new-schoolers is multitime AMA champion and factory Yamaha superbike pilot Eric Bostrom, a man who first popularized the modern style in the AMA competition despite his dirt-track and four-stroke background. When asked if the difference in riding styles comes from the younger generation's experience being limited to modern chassis and tire technology, Hodgson scratches his head and says, "Yeah, it's very possible; I've never analyzed it that way, but now that you've said it you're probably right."
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've no doubt heard of (if not ridden on) the infamous Tail of the Dragon. Officially known as US 129, this 11-mile stretch packs 318 turns and is arguably motorcycle Mecca. It's easy to see why; the picturesque landscape is straight from a fairy tale, while the twists and turns are seriously exhilarating. On a perfect day the sun would be shining, the road would be clear and opposing traffic would be nil. But the world isn't perfect. First off, there is zero room for error on the Dragon. Falling on one side of the road will greet you with rock face, whereas the other is lined with guardrails and trees-neither of which is optimal for a rider's well-being. Besides that, the road can be filled with riders of varying skill levels, especially on weekends. Unfortunately some riders fail to acknowledge that the road isn't a racetrack and treat the Dragon as if it were, seeing slower riders (or drivers as the case may be) as "passing opportunities" and making generally foolish decisions. Last I checked there weren't any trophies waiting at the bottom of the hill. Of course the threat of opposing traffic, usually of the four-wheeled variety, crossing over into your lane is another danger to consider. Occasionally commercial vehicles attempt to navigate the Dragon, the operators obviously unaware of the tight turns that follow. Because of the size of these vehicles there is no choice but to cross into the opposing lane to complete a turn. The dangers here are obvious, but they are worth noting.
Perhaps the biggest setback and draw against the Dragon comes in the hands of Johnny Law. Thanks to the Internet and affordable digital cameras, US 129 has gained notoriety from local photographers taking pictures in various turns. Several Internet sites are full of the spills and aggressive riding that take place on the Dragon. Possibly viewing this as a chance to draw revenue for the state, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has allocated funds to increase law enforcement along route 129 to ensure the road is a "safe place for motorcycle recreational activity."
Please. While I agree that something needs to be done to weed out the dangerous riders, the steps taken to do so reflect more of an effort to generate revenue for the state than to promote safe and responsible riding. The first tactic was to reduce the speed limit on the Dragon to 30 mph-a ridiculous figure that some might argue is dangerously slow and an obvious attempt at collecting money. Since July 1, 2007, patrol of the Dragon has increased to the point that it's bordering on harassment. Not only is the speed limit purposely too low, but enforcement of the limit is heavy seven days a week. Even if you are traveling the legal speed limit, you still might not have escaped the fuzz. There are videos floating around the Internet where swarms of patrol vehicles set up checkpoints just waiting for riders to pass through. One particular video shows a man driving his car at the legal speed limit yet being pulled over and cited for holding a video camera while driving. The man was later acquitted in court, but it goes to show the level of enforcement on this road. Now is that really saving anybody's life? There are numerous other stories on various websites of the Tennessee Highway Patrol harassing riders and drivers.
It's for these reasons that the Dragon has lost its appeal. The dangers presented on this road outweigh the amazing (albeit sketchy) landscape. A few years ago I would have been singing a different tune, but I suppose with age comes wisdom (at least I hope!), and I don't see the joy a sportbike enthusiast can gain from the Dragon. And if the inherent dangers of the road aren't enough, the heavy (and ridiculous) enforcement just drives people away, leaving a bad taste in their mouths. This isn't another diatribe about "saving it for the track," though that would be the best place to push your personal limits. On the contrary, I enjoy a Sunday morning ride through the twisties just as much as the next guy-and I'm used to seeing a law enforcement officer or two when I ride-but worrying about seeing one at every corner takes the fun away from riding. Especially when there's a fear of getting stopped for the most petty of infractions. Frankly, does that really make the roadways any safer? According to the locals, plenty of the surrounding roads are just as exciting, have more reasonable speed limits and are patrolled much less. If I'm ever back that way again, I think those are the routes I want to find. -T.S.
